Appointed CEO of Impero Software in 2018, Richard Fuller was born and raised in the United Kingdom in a town called Bedford of Bedfordshire. After graduating college, Fuller began his career as a strategy consultant working and living in London, Sydney, Manila, and Los Angeles.  He joined Investcorp to establish the venture capital business in New York.  He moved back to the UK and was elected a member of the British Parliament for his hometown in 2010 where he served two terms. “The time in public service fostered my interest in education and how schools operate. I became CEO of Impero with the goal to grow the company’s technology offerings to create a significant impact on student wellbeing. For the same reason that I sought public office -- I believe in increasing opportunities for all citizens. I see Impero in the fortunate position of providing new and relevant insights that truly unlock those opportunities for the next generation.”

Impero is an international company based in the UK. The company works with IT administrators and teachers in making effective use of the continued presence of technology in schools.  Fuller appreciates technology as a facilitator of education. “I see the role of IT administrators in school districts moving from being fixers of problems to interpreters of information in a more precise assessment of whether any particular software application or device is truly being that facilitator or not.”

Impero’s flagship product is Impero Education Pro which is made up of three modules: Impero EdTeach (for classroom management), Impero EdAdmin (for IT administration) and Impero EdProtect (for student safety). “We have led efforts to provide informed monitoring of student activity online, working with leading non-profits to bring their expertise into the classroom through our keyword libraries,” explains Fuller.

Impero works with non-profits, called "Internet Safety Partners," to ensure students learn and achieve a positive influence.  Working with Safety Partners creates a foundation for making major strides in student success.  “As we start the New Year, we are embarking on major steps toward helping students make even better use of classroom technology to achieve educational objectives,” adds Fuller.

From a CEO's point of view, Fuller wants to manage a business that delivers a suite of applications that enhance student success through the use of school-owned technologies. “The focus has rightly been on enhanced educational outcomes for the school or district as a whole.  Impero helps teachers and staff understand and interpret the impact of technology on knowledge attainment.”

As Fuller moves forward, Impero will provide schools with additional tools. Tools that help educators and administrators understand student engagement. “One of the challenges Impero is addressing is to evolve our growing insights into student wellbeing to provide useful information to students, parents, and teachers.” explains Fuller.

According to Fuller, Impero operates on the premise that parents want their child to do well at school, be happy, make friends easily, and learn the skills to be successful in life.  “For students, there is an interest to learn and discover themselves – their skills, attributes and to help resolve some questions as they mature and again, Impero is developing solutions that help.”

Teachers’ priority is engagement with the student applying the lesson and with learning in general.  “Our insights help, Impero is developing ways to help teachers understand how and where engagement barriers exist and how to overcome them,” explains Fuller.

Fuller is new to his role as CEO and it’s too soon to pinpoint his favorite success story. “We have successes every day concerning the impact of alerting school staff to the need for interventions."

One example: Ignacio School District in Colorado saved money using Impero by monitoring students listening to music on YouTube while in class. Keeping students from doing this reduced the district’s bandwidth costs. Ignacio also saved money and time by keeping the tech department in their offices instead of traveling to multiple sites.

Another example of intervention is West Rusk CCISD in Texas. Remote monitoring and screenshot reporting identified issues with some students planning drug deals in the school. The proper school staff were alerted to the situation. The screenshots gave instant proof, so that the situation could be dealt with and dissipated swiftly and discretely.

Impero's recent advancements in servicing schools makes it easier to fulfill their goal of helping student success. The company now offers a cloud-based solution. “We are also continuing to offer on-premise solutions because we believe schools should be free to make their own decisions about where their information – some of it highly sensitive – is stored,” concludes Fuller.